Keep a Lid on it! The Right Lid.

Tattler reusable lids at work

My year in the garden has been "interesting," as in five Copperhead snakes in with our animals or at my feet, suddenly.

I thought my post would be about snakes, but there's something far more lethal in many homes: canning lids. 

We do a lot of canning every year: four gallons of Middle-Eastern tomato sauce, strawberry and fig jams, sometimes pickles. I go through a stack of lids.

During the pandemic, more than a few friends decided to try home canning. I've long extolled the virtues of the National Center for Home Food Preservation, my go-to for canning advice. Yet they are silent about something that happened to me the first time this year: cheapass canning lids.

In the Fall, a massive shortage of lids emerged. It might have been the prior President's stupid trade war with China, with its associated bottlenecks. It might have simply been demand. In consequence, I bought a bunch of lids from Amazon, and several in each batch this year have "buckled."  Read more about the phenomenon here. The food is still good, but the jars must be processed again or put in the refrigerator.

Buckled lids. Re-processed with Tattlers

Eating from such a jar after it has sat on a shelf a while? It might prove fatal. 

I'm relegating my cheapass Chinese bargain lids to the storage of dehydrated foods in mason jars I keep in our freezer, for stockpiling dry beans, lentils, rice, and other staples with an oxygen-absorber pack. For canning? I'm again experimenting with US-made Tattler reusable lids. I've had some for a while, and I found that when one follows their directions exactly, they work wonderfully for up to a year (I usually eat my canned food by then). Some users of the lids complain about them not sealing, but I suspect they don't read directions well. We have yet to have a problem.

My other fall back? Paying high prices to get a couple of boxes of Ball-brand lids. They have yet to fail me and though the Muncie, Indiana plant has closed, the products are still made in the US and Canada. They will be there if the Tattlers disappoint.

Does all this rage matter? Yes, and not for geopolitical reasons. The Chinese lids are often lower quality, and there are reports (well, it's the Internet) of scam-lids made to look like Ball lids but made to lower standards in China.

So spend a few more bucks on a trusted product. Boutulism? Now that is expensive.